Canadian bass player Dave Young has worked with countless major artists over the last few decades including Oscar Peterson, Clark Terry, Gary Burton, Zoot Sims and Harry “Sweets” Edison. This release is a follow up to his 2019 disc Trouble In Mind which featured a trio and was nominated for a Juno Award.
In fact, Ides Of March is similar to putting on a much-loved pair of old slippers. It’s music that’s not easy to find fault with – a joy to the ear in its presentation, beautifully performed and containing plenty of familiar material which doesn’t sound stale in the hands of these experienced musicians.
Dolphin Dance and Speak Like A Child are just two of the four Herbie Hancock compositions favoured by leader Young and who could argue with such a choice? The quartet clearly enjoy stretching out on such material. There is much eloquence not to mention elegance in many of the solos: trumpeter Turcotte, once voted Canada’s top trumpeter, is worth singling out in this respect. Among his achievements are supplying all the trumpet parts in the Chet Baker biopic Born To Be Blue.
The Dutch-born Schwager is out of the Montgomery/Burrell school, his articulate lines redolent of the pair as he rides over the understated combination of Young and Clarke. Nobody brings more varied experience to the table than the drummer, whose CV includes the John Handy Quintet, The Fifth Dimension and some time with Rob McConnell.
There is nothing here to rock the boat, simply a well-delivered programme of highly listenable music.
Discography
(1) Dolphin Dance; Speedball; Speak Like A Child; One Finger Snap; Riot; (2) My Man’s Gone Now; (1) Ides Of March; The Target; Forty Five Degrees (52.05)
(1) Kevin Turcotte (t); Reg Schwager (g); Young (b); Terry Clarke (d). May 2020. (2) as (1) but omit Clarke.
Modica Music
